A heartbreak hat-trick of defeats to the promoted sides has left Boro fans in shock.

Whipping boys Watford are just the latest new arrivals to give Boro a bloody nose hot on the heels of an opening day 3-2 disaster at Reading and the late sucker punch in a 2-1 reverse at Sheffield United.

Stunned supporters are rightly angry. It is not just a demoralising setback, leaving the club deep in trouble. It is also deeply embarrassing.

More than that, it has caused all pre-season ambition to be swiftly downsized. Where the majority had banked on mid-table consolidation and maybe a cup run, they are now braced for a relegation battle - because three points off the bottom after 11 games, that is undeniably where we are, plunged deep into trouble.

Reading was predictable, but despite the history firing them it was still galling to surrender a two goal lead so cheaply.

Sheffield United was frustrating but despite a freak late sucker punch giving a hard luck story as excuse, Boro were muscled out by a team that was hungrier and fitter.

But being the first team brittle, demotivated and disorganised enough to lose to Watford should send a chilling message to everyone. No excuse can mitigate the enormity of such a disastrous result.

How can last season's UEFA Cup finalists be humbled so routinely by a cut-price team for whom top flight survival is a far-fetched pipe-dream?

A club with ambitions of a top half place should be expecting to win at least two of those games. Even a team aiming at mid-table mediocrity should win one and draw one. To come away pointless raises some big questions.

"There's ability there but people are bound to question our attitude and character when we lose the games we have," said Gareth Southgate.

"We have lost to all three of the promoted teams now and that tells me something."

Yes, it tells us the team is not good enough. The squad is unbalanced, the team has too many under-performers and it is failing to compete with even average opponents. The squad is still largely that shaped by Steve McClaren but that is no excuse.

If the team is distorted it is because key positions were not strengthened in the summer, a proven top flight striker was not replaced and because a rookie boss is struggling to get the team tactically organised or motivated enough to play the crisp passing game he wants.

It also shows that Boro, who lack real pace and snarling presence, have a problem dealing with teams that set out to be physical, direct and robust, who crowd the midfield and fly into tackles and try to hustle the opposition out of the game - and that applies as much to Blackburn and Manchester City as the one dimensional new boys.

But Boro always lose against the promoted sides, right? That glib remark - born of 'typical Boro' Chicken run cynicism and generations of underachievement - absolves the team of all responsibility, instead putting defeat down to some historical whim beyond their control.

And it isn't even strictly true. Boro may have suffered some stinging results against the new boys in recent years but rarely have they lost all three. The problem tends to have been too many draws.

They did suffer the unwanted hat-trick of defeats last term - home to Sunderland and Wigan and away at West Ham - but that is the only other time since returning to the top flight in 1998.

Boro did suffer three defeats - home and away to Ipswich and away at Charlton - in 2000/01 as Robbo flirted with the drop before Teesside Tel arrived to save the day.

That season was the worst in modern times for Boro against the promoted sides. As well as three defeats Boro also got three draws to take just three points from a possible 18.

The best performance came in 2004/05 as McClaren's team clawed to Boro's best ever Premiership finish of seventh with a haul of five wins and a draw and 16 out of 18.

But ironically that draw will be remembered longer than any of the emphatic wins. At Norwich Boro let slip a 4-1 lead to leak three in the last ten minutes and staggered away shellshocked with just a point. Despite other results it was taken down and later given in evidence against McClaren.

Defeats against the promoted sides weigh more in the balance when it comes to judging a season and a boss harshly.

Hence last season's humiliating 2-0 defeat to Sunderland was damaging beyond just the three points. Like the 5-1 thumping at Portsmouth in 2004, or the 3-3 draw salvaged at home at Leicester earlier that season, such results become part of the body of evidence as dissidents build a case against the boss. The Watford result will now be used to beat Southgate.